Chicago exchange and a common project on Immigration

In February 2012, a group of S4 students were given the chance to enter an exchange program with Walter Payton College Prep, in Chicago. Next January, another group of fourteen students will be given this opportunity. The first trip had been organized by the Languages Department of the American school, but this year it is the turn of the Social Science Department.

The “Melting Metropolis” Project

Belgrano Day School and Payton will be working on a project that has been named “Melting Metropolis” and fourteen students of each school will be researching this topic in depth in their countries. They will analyse how big cities (metropolis) like Chicago and Buenos Aires have been affected by immigration, both at the turn of the nineteenth century and at present. Both, the United States and Argentina were “melting pots”, opening their doors to people from all over the world who were seeking  a new life and a new home in our countries for economic, political or religious reasons.

We are going to work with students from M3 on this topic. They will have to prepare a portfolio which they will share with the American students; they will visit different iconic places around Buenos Aires, closely tied to the life of the immigrants who first arrived in our beautiful city. The idea is that when our students visit Chicago they will trace the steps of the immigrants and so will the American students when they come to visit us in May next year.

After the winter holidays (and once school starts in the United States after their summer holiday), we are going to organize a video conference so that our students meet their new American friends…  Immigration is a most exciting topic for us all, because most Argentines have immigrant backgrounds and feel proud to share their roots with others  who have had similar experiences.

Mónica Bruck